In Tune  10 Songs about Clint Barton
by Hidden Relevance
Summary: Another answer to the 10 Song Drabble Challenge - this time for our favorite archer.


_**Rules:**_

_**1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.  
>2. Turn on your music player and put it on randomshuffle.  
>3. Write a drabble related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!<br>4. Do ten of these, then post them.**_

**Yes I'm doing this challenge again – this time for Clint Barton! BTW, I tried to incorporate at least some of the comic verse into this… here's hoping I pulled it off.**

**And no, I don't own anything – that would be Marvel. Though I do have a healthy lust for Jeremy Renner!**

**1. No Regrets – Robbie Williams**

Natasha is beautiful in a way that dazzles (and often terrifies) damned near everyone around her. She's also one of the most efficient killers on the fucking planet, but at first glance any man might forget that.

Neither trait is the one that hooks Clint but good.

Once in a very blue moon, she laughs and it's like the sun coming out. He's never told anyone male (fuck if he was up for that kind of ridicule), but he might possibly have mentioned it to Pepper over half a dozen martinis. You know once.

From the outside, most of the team figures they're together, and Clint's content to let the illusion persist if she wants to. It'd be nice if it wasn't illusion, but that's neither here nor there.

They'd tried that one upon a time. Sadly relationships don't last too long when both people in the attempted relationship are very, very devoted to keeping secrets.

He trusted her – damned if he didn't trust Tasha more than just about anyone. It didn't mean he didn't expect her to lie to him, any more than he expected to be honest with her.

They both should have known better than to attempt the whole dating thing, and it blew up about as spectacularly as they probably should have guessed it would.

At least they've come out of it relatively whole if not precisely unscathed. And she's still there at his back when he needs her. And if they're more honest now as friends and partners than they ever were as lovers, well… That honesty is a gift he can't find it in himself to regret.

**2. Everything You Want – Vertical Horizon**

Clint sees more than his teammates think he does. If they figured that out, they'd probably find other places to be most days.

It's not that he tries to come across as creepy stalker guy, but he's used to being on the outside, to being the one to observe rather than interact beyond the occasional sarcastic comment. It's habit, reading body language and working out the psyche moving in that body. He does it with everyone, but it tends to be more focused with the people he cares about.

And yes he cares about the team. Fuck anyone who thinks differently. Caring about them occasionally leads to him doing something he really doesn't want to – like asking Thor why Jane is pissed at him, or sparring with Steve when he looks like someone kicked a kitten, or fuck all, taking Darcy out for margaritas so she'll spill about why she's all stone faced and isn't on the date she'd been talking about all week with what's-his-name down in R&D. He doesn't particularly want to know about that last one, but he's pretty certain Darcy needs him to ask, or at least needs _someone_ to ask.

If Clint's the first to see that… Well, that's his responsibility.

Now if she'd start giving him straight answers when he asked, he just might be able to fix the problem.

**3. I Will Not Bow – Breaking Benjamin**

The building rocks beneath him, and in the space between one breath and the next, Clint is moving, breaking from his nest to sprint to the edge of the roof and the possible exit of the fire escape. He holds his bow tight in one hand, not daring to waste even a moment to slide it over his shoulder in case that extra moment matters.

Another explosion rattles the roof and he stumbles and leaps, reaching with his free hand for the metal of the railing all but blindly. It isn't a graceful leap, but it's the best he can do, and he doesn't have to look behind him to know it's saved his life. The sound of crumbling and screeching metal tells him as easily as if he'd watched.

Of course now the fire escape is anything but stable, pulling away from the wall it was once solidly connected to.

It's a gamble, but he takes a breath and settles his grip and then swings away hard, the memory of a trapeze guiding his movements. He prays his seeking hand will catch hold of the other fire escape in the building across the way.

It doesn't.

**4. Mad Season – Matchbox Twenty**

Oh they were all fucking batshit, weren't they? Clint laughed at the thought, almost giddy at the feel of whiskey and camaraderie running through his system. He wasn't sure whose idea the Avengers (and assorted "support personnel") Inaugural Bar crawl was, but it was a damned good one.

Watching Thor beaming at the general public was surprisingly uplifting, and him trying to drink Steve-I-Can't-Get-Drunk-Rodgers under the table was never gonna get old, no matter what Jane said to the contrary. Nor were the body shots Tasha and Darcy seemed to enjoy. He blessed the bartender silently and offered up a silent salute to the gods of drunken revelry (the metaphorical ones… not the one actually in the room).

Beside him Tony lifted his beverage (club soda and lime though Clint was probably not supposed to know that – bad for Tony's image and all) to echo the toast, and the pair of them went back to ruling the pool table and occasionally trading quips as the mood took them. Across the room, Bruce, Pepper, and Rhodey watched the rest of them fondly if far more calmly (and probably far more soberly) than the rest of their group. Clint was careful to ignore the occasional schmoopy look Tony shot the redhead's way.

All in all a damned good time, he decided, nodding to himself again as he lined up on the cue ball.

And hey – no mayhem which meant no reprimand from Fury making Clint's looming hangover worse.

Hallelujah.

**5. Let The Light In – Bob Schneider**

He wasn't about to admit to it, but Clint was occasionally OK with the S.H.E.I.L.D. proximity to the lights and signs of Broadway. Alright, so maybe a little more than OK with. He could appreciate a good performance, that's all. What did the team expect – he was raised in a circus.

And if he occasionally sang show tunes in the shower, it was nobody's fucking business but his own. It made him feel good.

Besides, if he worked with a freaking green rampaging giant, he ought to be able to say Elphaba was hot without anyone batting an eyebrow. So there. Damn it.

**6. Tear the World Down – We Are The Fallen**

Clint doesn't think about the past if he can avoid it. Not beyond the occasional quip about a corn-fed carnie and the infrequent tidbits of information about the circus folk who'd damned near raised him. The past is over and done, after all. There's not a damn thing he could do to change it anyway, baring something even more bizarre than usual happening (and what with the Avengers Initiate, it would have to be very bizarre.) So no, he doesn't think about what came before, and barely talks about it.

He never mentions his brother. Ever. Not the boy he used to be and the nights they'd curl up together like the lion cubs in their basket, nor the young man who walked away from the circus and Clint, and never, ever of the enemy Barney has chosen to become.

That he was once part of a pair is a pain he can't dare to allow himself to talk about. What his brother has become and the truth of how easily Clint could join him on that path is the darkest fear he ever faces.

**7. Still Holding Out For You – SheDaisy**

The world changed in an instant, and so few knew it. Just him, or so it felt. Just him. Then with a wish and one extremely powerful mutant with an agenda, and Clint was somewhere else. A whole world away, and suddenly in a home with a wife and children Clint had never dreamed he'd actually want or need.

It hit him hard, knowing those precious things loved him, cherished him like he was somebody's hero. Not just the man behind the gun or the bow. A husband… a father.

He was there just long enough to start to like it, to crave it like breathing.

Then, in an instant, the red mage changed her mind, and it was all gone again. He was back in the world that made sense, in the world where he was alone.

He'd never hated someone quite so much.

**8. City – Sara Bareilles**

The hardest part of this Avengers shit is the city itself. He's used to stillness, to grounding himself in moments of silence that stretch for minutes into hours into days. The constant sound and motion of New York and Stark Tower sets him ill at ease, rubbing him raw inside and underneath his skin.

The mansion is both better and somehow worse. The entire team is there after all, and damned if he's never met a crew so able to thoroughly wreck a quiet moment. Considering Clint grew up in the circus, that's saying a hell of a lot.

There are times when he sneaks away to the roof and allows himself to silently scream into the sky. Never out loud, of course. Not where any of them might hear and comment on the archer finally losing his flaunted control.

**9. Mean – Taylor Swift**

It starts as a game, the feud between he and Stark. One smart-ass sniper versus a smart-mouth genius. It's all fun for a while, both of them testing the waters, seeing who might twitch first, competing to see who snags the last word before one of them flees the room.

Then… well then it isn't a game anymore. Clint can't remember which of them drew blood first, so to speak, and by this point it may not even matter.

They both know how to talk and bitch and bicker, but damned if either one can figure their way to a fucking apology.

It will take an act of God or Natasha, but something's got to give eventually.

**10. Right in Front of You – Christian Kane**

Clint didn't realize it when they first met that the curvy brunette with the unnatural attachment to her iPod would end up getting quite so deeply under his skin with very little effort. Hell, she certainly wasn't trying to do it – in fact, half the time Clint was pretty damned sure Darcy couldn't stand him. Course the other half she's pretty blatantly checking out his arms and/or ass and/or package like he was expected to be her personal side of beefcake.

Talk about mixed signals. Still, he couldn't help but like the feisty semi-civilian and her taser-happy ways. It kept him on his toes at least, figuring out whether she was in a pro- or anti-archer kind of mood.

He counted it as a personal victory when the former began to outnumber the latter.


End file.
